<p>There are many views in the concept of corporate reputation and the massive research in the area tends to result in many new definitions. Research has shown that a good corporate reputation has a positive relation to Sustainable Competitive Advantage, financial performance and attraction to competent employees. The many views in the concept make it especially interesting to examine the view on corporate reputation in a perspective of big Swedish corporations. Another interesting area to examine is whether the companies manage their reputation or not. The empirical findings of this essay are based on qualitative interviews to get a deeper understanding in the area of reputation. In the analysis the empirical findings were linked to the theoretical framework chosen for the study and earlier research in the area. Through this study it has been shown that companies are defining reputation as a part of the brand. They also explain reputation as the stakeholders aggregated view of a company. The companies manage their reputation, but as an integrated component in the work of brand and communication. The companies had difficulties in separating the concept of reputation andthe concept of brand.</p>

<p>Society demands more and more that corporations take over responsibility on the effects of their business actions in a stakeholder view. Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance are catchwords in this context that stand for a management view there one focuses on more than profits and quality. In corporate responsibility management one takes a stakeholder view and integrates also issues such as supplier relations, supply chain management, environmental practices and sustainability as well as labor standards and human rights into the management view. The integration and balance between economic, environmental and social issues going above legal requirements is called triple bottom line thinking.</p><p>Today, corporate responsibility is no more only an issue for large international corporations but also for SMEs with limited resources and less market power. The purpose of this thesis is to describe and understand how a sustainable business approach can develop and be maintained in SMEs. By examining the case Coffee Queen, we want to find out about driving forces for development of corporate responsibility.</p><p>To receive nuanced information and deeper insight into the corporate responsibility of a company, a single case study with a qualitative research approach was chosen. The empirical material for this case was collected during a visit of Coffee Queens’ plant in Arvika and three open personal interviews.</p><p>Based on a literature review and narratives from the empirical material it was found that driving forces for the development towards sustainable business are strongly related to leadership by values. The engagement of one or more organization members that are supported by the top management and a values base that gives a framework for corporate behavior and supports the reputation of the company were found to be important variables to reach an ISO 14000 certification for Coffee Queen. From the management side, the corporate responsibility can be seen as a market requirement and used as a marketing tool for competitive advantage. A strategic approach to corporate responsibility was appeared to be helpful as it increases the accountability of positions, and demanded in SMEs.</p><p>Total quality management according to ISO 9000 and 14000 was in this context found as additional driver for sustainable development. On a basis of continuous improvement companies have to forward their positions step-by-step towards an integrated sustainability approach. This idea of corporate responsibility development is demonstrated by a model showing the steps towards an integrated triple bottom line.</p><p>With these findings, this study provides insight into corporate responsibility in a SME and links values-based management and quality management to the process of developing a sustainable business approach.</p>

<p><strong><p>Abstract</p><p>This master thesis is a hermeneutic inspired case study of how the value base regarding the environmental and social responsibility in the Swedish coffee company Löfbergs Lila AB is affecting the company's business. A thesis inspired by hermeneutics means that it is based on two ideas, the one of interaction between entirety and partitions and the one of interpretation (Alvesson & Sköldberg 1994). This cause that the emphasis is on how the reality is interpreted and that it never can be seen as completely objective.</p><p>The case study was conducted during the spring semester of 2010 at Karlstad's University and consists of both empirical and theoretical material collected during this time. The empirical material in this thesis includes, among other things, interviews with four representatives of Löfbergs Lila AB, written material from the company regarding its work related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), some information about the coffee industry as a whole and different certifications for "ethical‟ coffee that exists on the Swedish market.</p><p>The basic idea with CSR as a business strategy is that it can be financially beneficial for companies to take a social and environmental responsibility outside of the company (Vogel 2005). There are also those who believe that it is easier for small and medium sized enterprises to implement and conduct CSR-related work compared to larger companies due to their size and because the owners is more engaged in the business. The CSR-related work at Löfbergs Lila AB is largely based on the owners (Löfbergs family) values of what is considered being "the right thing to do‟, but there are also financial incentives that causes the company to active engage in CSR.</p></strong></p> / <p><strong><p>Sammanfattning</p><p>Denna uppsats är en hermeneutiskt inspirerad fallstudie om hur värderingarna med avseende på miljömässigt och socialt ansvarstagande i Löfbergs Lila AB påverkar företagets affärer. Att en uppsats är inspirerad av hermeneutiken innebär att den bygger på två idéer, den om en växelverkan mellan helheten och delarna och den om tolkningar (Alvesson & Sköldberg 1994). Detta gör att tonvikten läggs på hur verkligheten tolkas och att den aldrig kan ses som helt objektiv.</p><p>Fallstudien genomfördes under vårterminen 2010 på Karlstads universitet och består av empiriskt och teoretiskt material insamlat under denna tid. Empirin i uppsatsen inkluderar bland annat intervjuer med fyra representanter för Löfbergs Lila AB, skrivet material från Löfbergs Lila AB angående företagets arbete relaterat till Corporate Social Responsiblity, material angående kaffeindustrin i stort och om de olika certifieringar för ‟etiskt‟ kaffe som finns på den svenska marknaden.</p><p>Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) är den beteckning som används för att beskriva företags miljömässiga och sociala ansvarstagande. Grundtanken om CSR som affärsstrategi är att det kan vara lönsamt för företag att ta ett miljömässiga och socialt ansvar (Vogel 2005). Det finns också de som anser att det är lättare för mindre och medelstora företag att ägna sig åt CSR jämfört med större företag eftersom ägarna är mer aktiva i företaget och att mindre företags storlek gör det lättare att implementera CSR i dem. Löfbergs Lila AB:s CSR-arbete har till stor del sin grund i ägarnas (familjen Löfberg) värderingar om vad som är ‟rätt‟ att göra, men det finns också ekonomiska incitament som gör att företaget aktivt engagerar sig i CSR.</p></strong></p>

<p><strong>“CSR and political consumption – a study of Nike’s and Puma’s CSR-reports”</strong></p><p>The purpose of this dissertation is to examine if political consumption has influenced multinational corporations to improve their Corporate Social Responsibility reports and policies more, than a company who has not been a target for political consumption.</p><p>This dissertation is a content analysis of Nike’s and Puma’s first (Nike 2001, Puma 2001) and latest (Nike 2007/09, Puma 2007/08) CSR- reports. Archie Carroll’s model of Corporate Social Responsibility is used as theoretical framework in this study. The model is used to focus on four areas within CSR; economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic. There has been delimitation in these four areas. Considering the economic area the study focuses on minimum wage, the legal area is focusing on minimum age, the ethical area is focusing on dialogue with stakeholders and control of suppliers and the philanthropic area is focusing on non-profit organization, projects and programs.</p><p>The results indicate that political consumption in the case of Nike, has no impact on the company to improve their CSR-report but they have improved their policy against CSR. In comparison to Nike, Puma has changed more from the first report until the latest. This could be because it is more generally popular to work with CSR today. Compared to Puma, Nike has changed more considering their policy against CSR. </p><p><em>Keywords: Archie Carroll’s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility, Change, Corporate Social Responsibility Report, Multinational Corporations, Nike, Policy, Political consumption, Puma</em></p>

<p>Tendensen att försöka hitta de affärsmässiga argumenten (business case) för CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility eller företagens sociala ansvarstagande) började framträda på 1990-talet. Vetenskapsmännen insåg då att en enda forskningsdisciplin inte kan förklara hur företagens arbetssätt med CSR-frågor kan förbättra deras ”bottom line” och således bidra till en hållbar utveckling av samhället. Både teoretiker och praktiker har vänt sin uppmärksamhet mot framgångsrika företag (bästa praxis).  I korthet innebär ett business case inom CSR ett besvarande av frågan ”Vilka fördelar har företagen och samhället av CSR?”. Samtidigt påstår både teoretiker och praktiker att det nästan är omöjligt att ge ett ”universal CSR-business case”. Objektet för vår studie är ett medelstort företag, Karlstads Energi AB:s fjärrvärmeverksamhet. Det finns flera anledningar till varför vi har valt just Karlstads Energi. Fjärrvärmebranschen anses som en hållbar bransch bland annat med kapacitet att bidra till uppfyllelsen av Sveriges klimatmål enligt det internationella Kyotoavtalet. Samtidigt präglas fjärrvärmebranschen av företagens dominerande ställning gentemot kunderna, dvs de privata kunderna anses utsatta i förhållandet till fjärrvärmeföretagen på grund av att de inte har en möjlighet att välja fjärrvärmeleverantör. Därför sätts företagets agerande i fokus utifrån ett CSR-perspektiv. Denna studie strävar efter att bidra till en förklaring av de faktorer som leder till ett framgångsrikt hållbart arbete på CSR-området.</p>

<p>Corporate citizenship is a debatable topic, according to many authors corporate citizenship is equivalent to corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and business ethics. Therefore, we have explained all the four theories in order to equip our reader with the subject in concern. This topic is of growing concern taking the evolutions of the subject, the previous and ongoing scandals into consideration.   The paper will present an overview of the concept of Corporate Citizenship and its alliances and provides the readers with different definitions of the above mentioned concept. We explained the relation between Corporate Citizenship (CC) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). We shall use both the terms CC and CRS interchangeably. After going through the literature we felt that there was not enough written about the leader’s role with regards to the ideology of Corporate Citizenship. Therefore, we took the opportunity and used these concepts to screen Steve Job the CEO of apple against the norms of corporate citizenship. Our choice of topic was also motivated by Fortune Magazine 2008-2009 edition.   We used Explorative study to fill our research gap by framing very general and broad research questions. A qualitative study was conducted with fifty (50) people from Umeå – Sweden.  Our interviewees were mostly students from university and one interview was conducted from the IT head of a public organization from Umeå Sweden.   Defying the theoretical concepts we used, we concluded that the consumers we interviewed embrace highly about the concepts of Corporate Citizenship but in practice, they did not bother to take these concepts into consideration before buying the product</p>

<p> </p><p>This paper is focusing on the responsibility corporations have toward society and what role stakeholders play in this responsibility. By providing a historical background of how corporations have used their responsibility toward society, it is clear that corporations have been responsible. Before, this responsibility was focused toward the shareholders of the corporation but with time it changed to include more actors within the society. By focusing on what kind of responsibility the corporation has towards the society it is active in, this paper will explain the notion of a corporation that has a social responsibility in terms of being morally responsibility for its actions. This is why the concentration of the this paper will be on the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR).</p><p>The notion of CSR has became more significant with time. In today's society corporations are expected to take more responsibility. A reason for this increased expectations from society on corporations could have to do with the fact that stakeholders have gained greater transparency through technological development, mainly the development of information technology.</p><p>The aim of this paper will be to show what role CSR plays for a corporation in today’s society and why a corporation should work more with its different stakeholders and not as before with almost solely its shareholders. To be able to conduct this aim, the notion of CSR will be described and put into perspective by the two main theories behind the concept of CSR: the monetary and ethical theories. This is done by first describing the development of CSR abroad and in Sweden, with a focus on “Den Svenska Modellen”. Second to show the different perspectives of the monetary and ethical approach in connection to the concept of CSR. Thereafter, the theories will be analyzed and discussed solely, in connection to each other and the development of CSR through time.</p><p>The analysis and discussion about the concept of CSR indicates that the monetary and ethical theories can not be considered to have the only impact on the concept of CSR but they have affected each other. Another conclusion is that the corporation's actions can lead to a responsible behavior that would benefit the whole society which the corporation is active in.</p><p> </p>

<p>Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) is not a completely new phenomenon, yet an idea whose time has truly come. To have commercial organizations cooperate with charity organizations for mutual profit is a "win-win-win" situation. The company gets added value to its brand, the charity organization gets to collect more money that it otherwise wouldn't and the customer gains a feeling that he or she has contributed to the society.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to study how a company, in practice, works with CRM marketing. How do they choose which charity organization to work with,what type of product is most appropriate to market with CRM and how is the CRM campaign designed? A theoretical model is then formed to answer these questions, after a thorough research of relevant theory on the subject. Through a qualitative multiple case study we thereafter studied this at three large companies on the Swedish market, ICA, Kellogg's and Lindex.</p><p>Our findings showed that all three companies work very similar with these issues. They cooperate with large well known charity organizations and they think that it's very important that the product and the cause match each other. The products are consistently low involvement products, which is also shown in the theoretical model. The CRM campaign lasts for a shorter period of time and the message is clear so it fast and easy will reach the customers.</p>

<p><strong><p>Företags sociala ansvar är en fråga som har blivit allt mer aktuell de senaste åren. Det begrepp som oftast används när företagsansvar diskuteras är Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Även om alla inte är överens om att företag ska ta ansvar utöver det lagstadgade arbetar många företag idag aktivt med ansvarsfrågor. Frågan som diskuteras idag är främst hur företag ska arbeta med detta på ett företagsekonomiskt effektivt sätt som gynnar företaget. Michael E. Porter och Mark R. Kramer menar att företag kan uppnå konkurrensfördelar och långsiktiga vinster genom att arbeta med CSR, men att detta arbete måste integreras i företaget. De presenterar fem steg som företag ska genomgå för att arbeta strategiskt med CSR. Dessa är: identifiera skärningspunkter mellan företaget och samhället, välj vilka sociala frågor företaget ska fokusera på, skapa en agenda för sociala frågor, integrera företagets påverkan på samhället med samhällets påverkan på företaget och skapa en social dimension av företagets erbjudande.</p><p>Klädkedjan Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) är ett företag som har arbetat relativt länge med ansvarsfrågor och som även säger sig arbeta strategiskt med CSR. Denna uppsats syftar till att utvärdera H&M:s arbete med CSR för att bestämma hur strategiskt detta är utifrån Porter och Kramers modell. För att genomföra detta har en litteraturstudie genomförts där främst H&M:s CSR-rapport från 2008 har använts. Ett ramverk, baserat på Porter och Kramers modell, har utformats och använts för att analysera CSR-arbetet.</p><p>Uppsatsen konstaterar att H&M har kommit en bra bit på väg med att göra sitt CSR-arbete strategiskt. Företagets mål ligger nära Porter och Kramers idealbild om strategisk CSR och de arbetar aktivt med att integrera CSR-arbetet i verksamheten. Det som saknas i H&M:s arbete för att det ska vara fullt strategiskt är ett större fokus på den påverkan som den omgivande miljön har på företaget.</p></strong></p>

Following the call for further research on the consumer perspective of corporate ethics, this research sets out to explore and conceptualize the construct of ‘Consumer Perceived Ethicality’ (CPE), referring to consumers’ aggregate and valenced perceptions of a subject’s(i.e., a company, brand, product, or service) ethicality. Results present novel insights into how positive/negative CPE is formed and impacted by various kinds of corporate conduct, thereby offering some explanations as to why some companies benefit from positive while others suffer from negative moral equity.